Jasahar Chariu

SR No.: 001841
Original Sutra Author: Pushpadant
Author: Parshuram Lakshman Vaidya, Hiralal Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1972
Total Pages: 320
Language: Apbhramsa
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Story
File Size: 22 MB

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JASAHARACARIU
him in the neck to death. His mother also died as a result of the poison. His son Jasavai came to the scene and in grief performed all the funeral rites with due pomp so that his father and grand mother might have good life in the future. But on account of the offering as a victim of the artificial cock, king Yasodhara was born a peacock and Candramati a dog in a forest. The peacock was brought to Ujjayini and presented to king Jasavai by a forester. Yaśodhara in his birth as peacock saw his queen still leading a vicious life with her paramour and in anger attacked them both. The queen struck the peacock with her girdle and thus broke one of its legs. Her maids persued the peacock, when the dog, queen mother Candramati of the previous life, came there and killed it. King Jasavai came there and with the stroke of a spear killed the dog. In their next birth Yasodhara and Candramati respectively became a mangoose and a snake. Both these met their death in the forest, the snake being devoured by the mangoose and the mangoose by a boar.
III
Resuming the narrative, Abhayaruci said Jasahara was born a fish in his next birth in the river Siprā, and his mother's soul a crocodile. While this crocodile attempted to catch the fish, one of the maids of the palace fell on them in the course of their water-sport, and the crocodile caught her. The fish thus escaped from the clutches of the crocodile who was caught by the royal order and so also the fish. The crocodile died on being placed on the ground, while the fish was taken to the royal kitchen, was cut and fried and served to Brahmins by Jasavai in the name of his father Jasa hara. In their next life Candramati was born a she-goat and Jasahara a he-goat to her. While in youth the he-goat the son was enjoying sexual pleasures with the she-goat, the he-goat was killed. Jasahara's soul passed into the womb of the she-goat again. One day king Jasavai caught the she-goat and cut her when he saw the child in the womb still alive. The young one was brought up in the palace, but one day Amộtamati ordered it to be killed. Next, Chandramati and Jasahara passed through successive births of buffalo, cock and hen. While in this last birth, they were placed in a cage under the charge of an officer of Jasavai. This officer met a monk who delivered to him a long discourse on Jainism. The officer was, as a result of the conversation, converted to Jainism and the cocks recollected their previous births. But at this very juncture the cocks in the cage were killed by an arrow of king Jasavai who wanted to show his skill in archery to his queen, Kusumávali, and the souls of Jasahara and Cardramati then passed into the womb of the queen as twins, the boy Abhayaruci and the girl Abhayamati. In course of time the twins attained youth. King Jasavai went to the forest to hunt with five hundred dogs. He met there a Jaina monk named Sudatta; and thinking his presence to be a bad omen, he discharged all his dogs against the monk. But by the prowess of the monk they all stood before him with bent heads. The king thereupon thought of killing the monk with his sword, when the merchant-friend of the king intervened and asked him to prostrate before the monk who, as the merchant said, renounced his kingdom of the Kalinga country because he punished an innocent person by mistake. King Jasa vai was moved by this narrative, bowed down to the monk, and thought in his mind to cut off his head in order to expiate his sins. The monk knew the king's thoughts and asked him not to do such a rash act. The king was again